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'Zero Days' Director Alex Gibney on Making Stuxnet a Movie Star

Podcast

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July 18, 2016

Filmmaker Alex Gibney is known for his awardwinning documenteries on topics that range from Enron to Wikileaks, but now he's taken on a tough challenge: Making a movie about a secret program that few people will publicly acknowledge. "Zero Days" focuses on the Stuxnet computer that's believed to be the world’s first digital weapon. News outlets had reported that both the US and Israel were behind the virus designed to slow down Iran's nuclear program – but even now, years after the attack on Natanz uranium enrichment plant, and long since researchers discovered Stuxnet on computers in other countries, the making of Stuxnet is still shrouded in secrecy.

As “Zero Days” premieres in the US, The Cybersecurity Podcast team talks with Gibney about the making of the film, the often frustrating secrecy of official Washington, and his surprise when he found out that Stuxnet was just a small part of a much broader US plan targeting Iran. Also on this episode, hosts Peter Singer of New America gives the inside story of what it's like to testify on Capitol Hill and Passcode deputy editor Sara Sorcher talks about the 18-year-old who hacked the Pentagon.